Nicole, 18, said she made the decision when she was 16 after realizing how precious virginity was. She claims offers for her virginity have already reached £890,000.

The part-time model, from Italy, told The Sun Online: “I decided when I was 16 that my virginity was precious. I was in a relationship with a man much older than me, but I decided I would only lose my virginity to the man I love and the man I want to marry in the future. He told me he wanted to stay with me all my life, that he loved me, and that he wanted to have a family with me but I was only 16 and I was scared so I decided to split up with him.”

In the wake of the split Nicole (not her real name) began to think about her education and claims she would like to move the UK, to study business at Cambridge, so she went online to look for ways to fund her education and that’s when she found other girls selling their virginity for millions.

She said: “I wanted a good education so I started looking on the web for ways to finance my studies and I came across a series of auction adverts and found there were girls who had sold themselves for £3.1 million (€3.5 million) so I decided I would do the same when I turned 18.

“I hope to get as much as possible to fund my studies, to help my sister and my family, and buy my parents a house. There are a lot of men interested who are writing to the agency and the highest offer we have at the moment is €1m (£890,000).”

The auction is taking part on the European site Elite Models VIP – not to be confused with Elite Models in the UK. Although she admits to “a little bit of fear” Nicole is convinced the man who wins the auction will treat her well.

She said: “I am quite nervous but I am also quite confident because if a man is disposed to pay so much for you, he will certainly be a kind person. I’m sure we will have a great time together.

She added: “My virginity will go to the highest bidder but if I don’t get on well with him, I will be able to choose another bidder.”

Nicole admitted she is a bit apprehensive about having sex for the first time, but not because her partner will be a stranger.

She said: “I know it hurts a lot so I am a little bit worried about that but I hope it will go well and I’m pretty confident about that.”

Amazingly, although she plans to spend much of her windfall on the family, Nicole has kept the auction from her parents and says it would “destroy” them.

She said: “I don’t want my parents to know about this because they are very strict and they wouldn’t approve and even my friends don’t know anything about it. My family would be destroyed if they knew. If they discover one day I will talk to them and hopefully they will understand.